“Evan” Warns Against Dangers of Gun Violence

Marin Imhoff

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Sandy Hook PSA screenshot

Don’t look at Evan, look to his left.

As many of you may know, on December 14, 2012 Sandy Hook, CT experienced one of it’s darkest days. A 20 year old man named Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 young children while they were in school. This was considered the deadliest mass shooting at a grade school in history and the third deadliest mass shooting by a single person in history.

This past weekend, a video was released called “Evan” which highlighted the dangers of gun violence. The video starred a boy named Evan who wrote to a girl everyday by scratching messages on a library desk. Throughout the video you see both Evan and the girl living their everyday lives, while another boy hidden in the background was showing warning signs of gun violence. The boy can be seen making gun motions with his hand in class, looking at gun videos online, and posting pictures of him holding a gun on social media. The video makers expected for viewers not to realize the strange behavior shown by this boy as they are focusing on the budding relationship between Evan and the girl. After the boy enters the gym and takes a gun out of his bag, the video then rewinds, and plays back a second time highlighting the signs of gun violence viewers might have missed before.

While the video is only trying to inform people to be aware of, and report signs of gun violence when they see them, some people claim that it was too dark for kids to be watching. Others, however say that the video was a realistic portrayal of gun violence and that people need to realize that school shootings are something worthy of attention. Whatever your opinion of the video is, it is undeniable that it evokes a chilling reaction from everyone who watches.